Stray Dog in the Snow
Recently, in Russia, a 10 year old girl got caught outside in the snow. She held onto a stray dog all night in the snow to keep warm. That dog saved her life.
In the morning, when the police and her parents found her alive— they took her to the hospital and left the hero dog there in the snow.
They took their daughter and left the dog who saved her life.
Performing Miracles For Others
When I heard that story, I felt like that dog. I also felt like you were the dog, too. You are saints. You can’t help but do good, even when you are not appreciated.
I want to differentiate between two types of help:
When you help someone, because it is who are you— then helping that person, makes you more of who you are— it makes your inner light shine.
But let’s say you’re helping someone, and you start to feel:
- Obligated
- Guilty
- Drained
- Burdened
Then, helping that person will dim your inner light. How you know your inner light is dimming is you will feel depressed. Depression is when joy is sucked out of your life.
For athletes, there are two types of pain:
- The first kind of pain is the soreness you feel in your muscles after you work out— that kind of pain makes you stronger.
- The second kind of pain is one that leads to injury— the kind of pain that tells you that you’re not balanced.
For the dog who saved the little girl— if he felt amazing the next day after saving the little girl— that’s the first kind of pain. Saving her makes his inner light shine. Someone will see him on TV and come and adopt him.
If he felt abandoned, hurt, alone, after saving this little girl’s life— that is the second kind of pain. It’s telling him that he’s not balanced. If he saves another person in the condition he’s in— hungry and cold— he will die.
When you do a miracle the right way— both people are stronger. The dog’s spirit is stronger. The family of the little girl learn gratitude.
When you do a miracle the wrong way— both people are weaker. The dog dies of hunger and the family of the little girl learn selfishness.
When you help people in a soulful way, you always empower yourself to become more.
When you help people in an egotistical way, you always diminish yourself to becomes less.
In my opinion, it doesn’t matter whether or not you perform the miracle. What matters is— when you do a miracle or a really really good thing for someone else— are you more? Or, are you less?
